Living the unknown

It's the first time in human history that we live in an unknown world where the future is almost unpredictable. It was mentioned in the Bible that Jews will return to Israel and it happened 2000 years later. It was mentioned in Chinese classics that one day, the "iron bird" will fly the sky and "iron snake" will block the road, the prophecies came true approximately one hundred years ago following the invention of airplanes and railways. However, we can't really predict what the future holds fifty years later from now. The stock market is too volatile today and world politics are fickle. Martin Jacque wrote about China who is anticipated to become the greatest economy in the world by 2050 but today the covid situation and Chinese "zero cases" policy may have nullified the forecast due to exacerbation of the international tension as a result of the border restrictions. 

Furthermore, the Chinese naval invasion in the South China Sea into Nusantara's waters has aggravated the national sentiments against Chinese ethnicity in South East Asia. For China, they have to claim the nine dots line territory for natural resources and for defense against American maritime force, but for most of the neighboring countries, they are abided by the post-war international territorial law where it limits the territorial sea to 12 nautical miles, 24 nautical miles for the contiguous zone, and 200 nautical miles for Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ). The Chinese's claim has exceeded the limit by a few folds, and the ASEAN countries are clearly unprepared or too vulnerable for direct confrontation with China, one of the most powerful maritime forces in the world today. 

War is the last resolution for such kind of dispute but a nation's territory is a sign of a nation's sovereignty and would not be compromised even for a small country like Singapore or Taiwan. Therefore, war is unavoidable as a balancer especially when allies like America are fuming the situation. If world war 3 are to break out, the developing countries will be scapegoats served as the frontier or war zone. Not a second thought, the issue in the South China Sea could be used as a perfect flashpoint for such a terror. Another word of saying is, although it is predicted that China will be the greatest economy by 2050, such prediction may be burned down to ash via conflicts with neighboring countries needlessly by border policy due to the pandemic. The current border restrictions have isolated China from the world when the world has started to open up and to live with the virus. Due to the current trend, China will spend years isolating itself until the virus completely subside despite many foreign co-workers are struggling to cooperate with their counterparts from the outside of the country. It had restricted the exchange of foreign intelligence and induced national sentiment once again since the Qing Dynasty collapsed in the early 19th century. This is not an exaggeration but history has taught us a lesson. Since the last time China closed down and claimed they have everything, the next time they open up, the world had changed dramatically.

How would the fickle global model affect our personal life? It could be in multi-folds. For myself, I may not be able to complete my Ph.D. due to the border restriction and may not be able to withdraw my scholarship who have been stuck in a Chinese bank for over a year. I would still gain important insights from this process but I may have to spend years balancing my financial deficit due to years of joblessness. Plus, the exact question is what would I be without a Ph.D.? My career planning would be a completely different one from what I set a decade ago. There would lie so much uncertainty in the future if I am to start from zero in any other field. Nevertheless, to comfort myself, I am not the form of the worst sacrifice of this era. I have many friends who have already dropout especially from Vietnam. In Malaysia today, there are countless medical students who would graduate without a permanent job. They have invested a few hundred thousand dollars in their Bachelor's Degree but they may not be able to pay off their loans in the coming ten years even if they are able to get a permanent position after their housemanship or entdoc with about RM 3000 of basic salary per month. As a result, this generation is forced to delay their marriage to over 30 years old. Though we have better health care today, as far as our menopause and short life span are concerned, we do not have the luxury to delay our childbearing. This is a cruel fact but medical certification may not make most of us upper-income group anymore, nor do a Ph.D. would bring us this today. But a businessman would, even though he may be just graduated from secondary school.

The pandemic is completely unpredicted but inevitable in human history. There is no one to blame for it but it is proven that investments in a single skill are unsustainable in a rapidly changing world. In a world like this, it isn't about how many skills we have mastered, it was about adaptability. How fast we can adapt to a new environment and how well we can adjust ourselves emotionally to that. So, to survive the 21st century, we should be adjusted to improve our adaptability quotient (AQ) and emotional quotient (EQ) instead of intelligent quotient (IQ) as what we knew and solely invested a few decades ago. You can't rely on your family or spouse, as they may leave you at any time, you can't rely on your education, at some points, they may be impractical. What a quality control chemist could do without his fancy instruments? What is most of us going to do without electricity? But our ability to adapt matters. We still need a minimum level of education to survive but our ability to memorize those textbooks facts ultimately depend on our ability to adapt to our newly designed education framework, or the other word, adaptability. So, before picking up any of those skills for survival, we may need to first enhance our neuroplasticity. The ability to accept changes even though they may not be what we wanted is a kind of neuroplasticity. 

In the end, we won't have everything we wanted even though you put everything into it. The ability to accept the globe does not revolve around us and our dream is a kinda plasticity. It may be cruel and almost incomprehensible to reason why we should give up on our dream but sometimes, a cliche like the "American dream" serves no more than just motivation but not a reality. A reality must tally with the ongoing fact and circumstances which most are not under our control. For example, we are still failed to forfeit "death.” This is not what the "American dream" could solve. We won't be able to do exactly what we like but with synchronized AQ and EQ, we may be at least able to get close to it. We won't solve the problem of death but at least we would be able to improve our life quality when we're still living. My last word today: If you happened to experience some kind of hardship and discouragement recently, please do not give up! Know that you are not alone fighting this!

Till then!